1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a storage medium that stores a program for switching a printing apparatus which executes printing, a print control apparatus, and a print control method.
2. Description of the Related Art
In many OSs (Operation Systems) such as Windows (registered trademark) by Microsoft Corp. and Mac OS (registered trademark) by Apple Inc., a printer driver mechanism is available for controlling a printing apparatus from application software. When a user installs a printer driver, which corresponds to the model of a printing apparatus for printout, on the OS, the printing apparatus can provide a printout from any application software corresponding to the printing I/F (interface) of the OS.
In general, a plurality of printer drivers can be installed on the same OS simultaneously, and a plurality of printing apparatuses can be controlled without restarting the application software. Conventionally, the printer drivers are available for each model of the printing apparatus. Naturally, by using a correct printer driver corresponding to the printing apparatus, printing can be carried out correctly and model-specific functions can be used. However, in a system having several types of printing apparatuses that have been introduced into an office environment, a system administrator manages all printer drivers that are independently installed by each client, resulting in a great burden on the system administrator.
An example of a burden on the system administrator includes an operation validation by installing/uninstalling a printer driver. In other words, when a part of the printing apparatuses is switched to a new model, the system administrator is to validate whether a trouble occurs in the operation of the existing printer driver when a printer driver for a new printer model is additionally installed on the OS on which a printer driver for a different printer model has already been installed. Installation into a system cannot be decided as long as no trouble in the operation of the existing printer is validated. Also, when the operation screen is different for each printer driver, a system operation manual directed to a user is to be updated.
In order to reduce such a burden on the system administrator, a printer driver referred to as generic printer driver (or universal printer driver) has been developed. The generic printer driver is characterized in that it does not correspond to model-specific special functions but corresponds to general functions and broader models. By using the generic printer driver, the printer driver to be installed by each client can be combined into a single type. As a result, there is no need to worry about the occurrence of any trouble due to the installation of a plurality of printer drivers. Furthermore, in the case of a model change, the printer driver already installed hitherto can be used as is.
Such a generic printer driver also improves the printing environment on a mobile PC (Personal Computer). For example, consider the case where an employee who comes and goes between a plurality of offices makes a printout on a printing apparatus connected to the office's network from a notebook PC that which the employee carries. Conventionally, different types of printer drivers are installed at different offices for separate use. However, it is cumbersome to properly select and use a driver from a plurality of printer drivers. Thus, when the generic printer driver is used, a single printer driver can switch a printing apparatus of a port for printout. For example, the Universal Printer Driver by Hewlett-Packard Company displays the setting screen for each print job so as to specify the output printer.
However, print settings is to be reset so as not to use the functions which the printing apparatus does not have, whenever the printing apparatus to be output is switched. For example, when the printing apparatus is switched from a printing apparatus having a stapling function to a printing apparatus not having the stapling function, the stapling function is to be reset to “OFF”. Otherwise, a print control command and a drawing command, which are incompatible with the printing apparatus, may be executed, resulting in printing errors and unintended print results.
Thus, a technique to switch print settings for solving these situations has been proposed (e.g., see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-147118). In this technique, print setting information, which has been initialized for each application software, is firstly registered for each application name. Then, when a printer driver is activated by a print request instruction from that application, if the application name has already been registered, the registered print setting information is invoked so as to display the print setting screen. If the application name has not been registered, the default print setting information is displayed on the print setting screen. By applying this technique to the printing apparatus, the print settings, which have been initially set for each printing apparatus, can be invoked for printout.
However, in the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-147118, print setting information, which has been set before switching the printing apparatus for printout, may be deleted, thereby causing the situation in resetting the initially-registered print settings back to its original print settings.
Not only print settings but also settings (hereinafter referred to as “device settings”) to be performed for each device, such as optional equipment configuration connected to the printing apparatus and various passwords is to be reset for each switch of the apparatus to be output. Although optional equipment configuration can be automatically reset when a configuration information acquire function is used, the load on the network and the printing apparatus may increase, and such configuration information may not be acquired when the network carries out one-way communication. In addition, a security situation may arise if a password can be readily acquired from the printing apparatus. Hence, in general, a password cannot be acquired from the printing apparatus.
The present invention is directed to enable the output destination printing apparatus to be switched in a smooth manner without requiring any laborious setting of the printing apparatus when the printing apparatus to be output is switched.